U.S. Weighing New Road Rules for Troops in Afghanistan

BAGRAM, Afghanistan — Earlier this month, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, issued a tactical directive, ordering officers to use extreme care before calling in air strikes. Now, McChrystal is weighing new guidelines for troops’ everyday interactions with the locals. At the top of the list: Don’t drive like a jerk.

There are all kinds of threats on Afghanistan’s roads — including an increasing number of improvised bombs. Still, coalition convoys have come in for some recent criticism, particularly in the capital, for driving like the armed equivalent of New York City cabbies. Earlier this year, security consultant Tim Lynch posted a scathing commentary about the way the Army was driving in downtown Kabul. “For the life of me,” he wrote, “I cannot figure out why it is that they continue to operate in Kabul as if they were on [Baghdad’s notorious ‘road of death’] Route Irish back in 2005.” And last week, McClatchy’s Nancy Youssef published a piece about the aggressive, guns-up security convoys ferrying VIPs around Kabul.

Canadian Brig. Gen. Eric Tremblay, spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, told Danger Room that McChrystal was considering a new directive that would set the tone for working among the population, while “maintaining the delicate balance” between cultural sensitivity and protecting the force.

“The commander is maybe thinking of producing COIN [counterinsurgency] guidance that will govern day-to-day interactions with Afghans,” he said. “And that may cover tactical driving both in Kabul and outside, and it may also deal with how you portray yourself with Afghans — but also leaving it to the tactical commander or the commander on the ground to decide.”

Tremblay, who previously served a tour as the deputy chief of staff of the Kabul Multinational Brigade in 2004, said that he had not seen any particularly menacing behavior by security convoys. “I’ve been here five weeks, and I have yet to observe that in Kabul,” he said.

Still, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, speaking Monday with the Associated Press, suggested he would like the rules for foreign troops to change. While Karzai said Afghanistan still needs international troops, he said their presence should be “based on a new contract” that would reduce civilian harm and limit searches and detentions.